3.01 Full Install is great, and for wifi on my older Dell laptop with a PCMCIA DLink 650 I use the NDIS wrapper and it works great. I save my settings and everytime I boot after that, the wireless comes up on boot. Perfect.

On a different partition I installed 3.99. The same wireless device is recognized as ath_pci for wireless, Enter wlan wpa2 info, wizard status bar takes and while and says "WPA didn't connect" but the networking defice is recognized, and AUTO DHCP works. Networking is fine for that session. If I reboot, no wireless and I have to go through the network config again. I can choose the NDIS wrapper as in 3.01 but I have to load the ath_pci again in order to be able to unload it to try another driver (took me a little while to figure that out). The NDIS driver will also work fine that session, but when I reboot, again no wireless without running net config again.

Observations:
- In 3.01 the ping command delivers 64 bytes, in 3.99 its 56
- In 3.01 ifconfig just shows lo and wireless, with the ip info listed under wireless... In 3.99 ifconfig shows ath_pci, lo and wireless with the ip info under neath ath_pci
- Loading the ath_pci driver in 3.01 does not recognize the DLink 650 as compatible hardware

I saw some comments and code changes in the 3.99 rc.network file that talked about a bugfix, but unfortunately for me, the NDIS wrapper in 3.01 works better than the native ath_pci driver in 3.99.

I haven't tried full installing 3.01 and then booting off the 3.99 disk and upgrading yet.

It's not enough to include various drivers that do not work, or that only work part way (for example the r8180/8185 or the zydas 1211 usb which can scan networks but not connect open or in any encrypted mode).

I have tried every Puppy distro from 1.09 up to 4, and truly long for working wireless for my laptops!

Also would be nice if Puppy supported my touch pad, but I'd settle for wireless.

It's not enough to include various drivers that do not work, or that only work part way (for example the r8180/8185 or the zydas 1211 usb which can scan networks but not connect open or in any encrypted mode).

I have tried every Puppy distro from 1.09 up to 4, and truly long for working wireless for my laptops!

Also would be nice if Puppy supported my touch pad, but I'd settle for wireless.

It's not enough to include various drivers that do not work, or that only work part way (for example the r8180/8185 or the zydas 1211 usb which can scan networks but not connect open or in any encrypted mode).

I have tried every Puppy distro from 1.09 up to 4, and truly long for working wireless for my laptops!

Also would be nice if Puppy supported my touch pad, but I'd settle for wireless.

I'm shooting in the dark here but have you tried this patch?
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?mode=attach&id=5992
just wondering
tons of network improvements were never placed into puppy 3.01 or 4 series because of other issues but you can have a look at this forum link
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22245
please do tell how it all went
ttuuxxx

Thanks for trying, but the forum link you sent is something I've already tried without success, and the "patch" over wrote newer packages. That patch by the way doesn't support wpa or wpa2 either. Kinda made things worse.

So here's another idea for future Puppies-add a sanity check to packages if they are about to over write the newer version.

Posted: Fri 16 May 2008, 13:25 Post subject:
PCMCIA support on a Puppy Boot FloppySubject description: pcmcia support on a boot floppy would allow booting from Pcmcia scsi or flash

For laptops without an IDE CDROM drive or USB support, booting a new version of Puppy is impossible, except by doing a hard drive install.

What's needed is a boot floppy that provides pcmcia support and modules for pcmcia_scsi host adapters or pcmcia flash card readers. Then these systems could be booted from the LiveCD or from flash.

Ideally, the floppy would be configurable, so that only the modules required to boot would be needed on the disk. This would both make it possible to get everything needed to boot on one floppy, and reduce the bootup time (and wear and tear on the drive) significantly.

This does away with the ISO file requirement, having the OS evolve to two compressed files. A direct approach would be offered, and may help with ortopogo's request. S/He could extract the bootfiles to a floppy, from the HDD, and make it write-protect.

This is similar to the /optional folder in DSL which creates a menu icon that allows installation from the menu after bootup - here is a link
http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/MyDSL:_Loading_Extensions_at_Boot

Actually, its functionality should be merged into PetGet. Barry said once that his original plan was to have such a feature built in, but never got around to doing it. With the latest incarnation of the package manager, it shouldn't be hard to add it, UI wise.

This is one of the things I plan to do in the next Pizzapup, if Barry doesn't do it first. I think that once the work has been done, adding it to Puppy wouldn't be a big deal. Barry's a busy guy, so he has to pick and choose what he works on._________________Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib

HI, perhaps I'm in the wrong place and the wrong position but as a new-to-Linux user with little know how, what would help make Puppy more successful with more people is if it had better support for video drivers. the problem I've faced with Puppy all along has been getting it to work with my video card, especially 3d accelleration. if I could download an iso and burn it and boot to it and have it work without fighting with the video card it would make a huge difference. it isn't so bad to deal with the sound cards or network stuff but if the video doesn't work you're kinda dead in the water. I have other wants but this one I feel is kinda critical. I've recommended Puppy to people only to have them tell me they couldn't get it going. seriously I've been waiting for the longest time for Linux to catch up with "the opperating system which must not be named" as far as supported hardware. if it worked I'd switch completely!
Scott

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